Yesterday, my baby turned 3. He’s getting to be such a big boy! His vocabulary continues to grow, and, as hard as it is to believe, so does his stubbornness. He still is not much a fan of mornings. He adores his big brother. Loves chicken, soup, crackers, beans of all kinds, sweet treats, and is overall a fairly good eater. He is completely potty trained. He’s a great napper, but still sometimes struggles with sleeping well at night. He sometimes has crying fits around midnight or 5 am. Sometimes he yells, “Eze, NO!!!” in his sleep. That always makes me giggle a little, when I’m not completely exhausted from those middle of the night wake up calls.

He is in a phase where he is really asserting his will. For example, last night I was sitting with him eating supper at Bible study. My younger sister came over and asked, “Simon, can I sit by you?” He scowled at her and said, “No! I sit by my mommy. MY MOMMY”. She laughed and said, “Well you keep sitting by your mommy. I’m still going to sit next to you on the other side”. He’s pretty sure he’s in charge most of the time, and really likes to try to boss the rest of us around.

My favorite words he says these days:

Hole-de-sac = we live in a cul-de-sac

Hice keem cone = ice cream cone

High pad = iPad

He’s very deliberate with his speech, and enunciates his words well. Its been so much fun watching him grow this past year. We think of his birthmom, and his foster mom who he calls HaMaeNah, knowing they are thinking of him. We hope they know how much we love him. We are very blessed!!

One year ago today, we met Simon. Oh what a happy adoption day it was!!! We are so blessed that we have been able to adopt our boys, and have such beautiful memories of our first moments with them. Last night, Dave and I watched all of our videos from our trip to Korea. My favorite video is the one where we are meeting Simon and his foster mom for the first time. Hearing him speak with her in his little Korean words brings me such joy, and I miss hearing him speak Korean very much.

In the year that he has come home, we’ve grown so much together as a family. It’s been a tough year in many ways, and I’ve learned about myself that I really struggle with change. It takes a lot more time for me to adjust to new normals than I like to admit. But I’ve learned a lot of really good things too. I’ve learned how incredibly amazing it is to have a snuggler, who is content to sit on Mom or Dad’s lap and snuggle in to their chest. And how funny (sometimes) it is to have the grumpiest child on the face of the planet if he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. And how endearing it is to watch him copy absolutely everything his big brother does or says or eats or drinks. (It helps that Eze thinks it’s pretty cool to have a one-brother fan club).

To see these boys becoming closer brothers all of the time is definitely one of the best parts of our lives. They fight like they’ve been brothers their whole lives. And they stick up for each other, just like brothers do. When they antagonize each other and their fighting gets to be too much, they are required to sit on Eze’s bed and hold hands until they can get along.